Customer Reviews

16 Most Requested Songs Of The 1940s, Vol. 1

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I bought this for my 86 year young grandma after she got her first CD player. She absolutely loves it. She is asking me to get the second volume (which I cannot find). She told me stories of all the dances that my grandfather and her went to when these songs were playing. If you have a parent/grandparent that loved music in this era it will be a hit.

Yes, here is one more thing to blame on Woody Allen, as if he hasn't had enough problems in his life. Earlier this year I watched and reviewed in this space the film Radio Days that Woody directed. Every since then in the deep recesses of my brain the tunes Paper Dolls and Sentimental Journey have been pounding away. Hey this is music made before I was born, although maybe I picked it up in the womb. Why is it in my head? I am still a child of my generation and fought the anti-Vietnam War fight to the tunes of Bob Dylan's Desolation Row and The Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter but I think I can make a little room for this, if only to keep my brain from stopping that pounding. Directly below are a few comments from my Radio day review that fit here and below that some specific comments on the CD being reviewed.

"...I am a first generation child of the television age, although in recent years I have spent more time kicking and screaming about that fact than watching the damn thing. Nevertheless I can appreciate Director (and narrator) Woody Allen's valentine to the radio days of his youth. I am just old enough, although about a half generation behind Allen, to remember the strains of songs like Paper Dolls and Autumn Leaves that he grew up with and that are nicely interspersed throughout his story as backdrop floating in the background of my own house.

I am also a child of Rock and Roll but those above-mentioned tunes were the melodies that my mother and father came of age to and the stuff of their dreams during World War II and its aftermath. The rough and tumble of my parents raising a bunch of kids might have taken the edge off it but the dreams remained. In the end it is this musical backdrop that makes Radio Days most memorable to me......

....Allen's youth, during the heart of World War II, was time when one needed to be able to dream a little. The realities of the world at that time seemingly only allowed for nightmares. My feeling is that this film touched a lot of sentimental nerves for the World War II generation (that so-called `greatest generation') whether it was his Jewish families (as portrayed here) on the shores of New York's Far Rockaway or my Irish families on the shores of Quincy, Massachusetts. Nice work, Woody."

Highlights here include the classic Sentimental Journey with Les Brown and his band and a young fresh Doris Day on vocals. Harry James and his band doing a bang up job on You Made Me Love You. A startlingly beautiful version (I didn't expect it to be in this kind of compilation) of Some Enchanted Evening from the Broadway musical South Pacific done by Ezio Pinza. Kudos here. The surprise is a very sensuous Latin- tropical version of Amor in Spanish done by Xavier Cugat and his band with an unknown (to me) Carmen Castillo on vocals. Wow.

Can't quite put my finger on it, but this collection seems to be lacking something. I love music from the 30's, 40's and 50's and it just seems there are better collections out there. Maybe this is just not the best selection of 40's songs. Also in some cases, I am thinking that maybe the artist who had the most success with a given song or is best remembered for a song is not necessarily the one performing the song on this album. For example, I don't remember Doris Day ever singing "Again" and "Dear Hearts & Gentle People" is (for me) a Bing Crosby Song. No Bing Crosby at all on this album and he was certainly one of the top 1940's performers. The collection does indeed include top artists of the era and it's a good sampler; it just doesn't seem as interesting as it could have been. A few of the songs seem a little more obscure too than the other more popular hits of that time.

Here are the years and Billboard chart positions of the CD selections:
1. Sentimental Journey #1 1945
2. You Made Me Love You #5 1941
3. Buttons and Bows #1 1948
4. White Cliffs of Dover #7 1941
5. Amor ???
6. Symphony #5 1945
7. Ballerina #10 1948
8. I'm Beginning to See the Light #4 1945
9. You Won't Be Satisfied #5 1945
10. Doin' What Comes Natur'lly #4 1946
11. Crusing Down the River #8 1949
12. Again #14 1949
13. Some Enchanted Evening #7 1949
14. Linda #2 1947
15. I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm #7 1948
16. Dear Hearts and Gentle People #7 1949
Hope this is helpful - enjoy some favorites from the "greatest generation."

My grandfather passed last Sep. got this CD for my grandma to comfort her. She loves every track!! Bring back great memories her and my Grandfather shared.